Ukraine: Their story needs to be heard

[NickNitro]

I found this on Imgur and feel it needs to be talked about.

The story of how Ukraine became a Dictatorship

In November 2013, after 5 years of talks, Ukraine and the European Union were about to sign a historical agreement to create a free-trade zone between Ukraine and the European Union in exchange for reforms in the political and legal system to make Ukraine a more democratic country.

http://ec.europa.eu/trade/policy/countries-and-regions/countries/ukraine/

The president, Viktor Yanukovych, suddendly decided to stop the talks and cancel the agreement on November 20, 2013 (that's him on the right).

Viktor Yanukovych made international news in 2011 when he ordered Yulia Tymoshenko to prison.
Yulia Tymoshenkothe, the former prime minister, had just lost the 2010 presidential elections against Viktor Yanukovych and was sent to prison for 7 years for allegedly making disadvantageous natural gas agreements with Russia.
Several members of her former government were charged with various crimes and imprisoned in what appeared to be political vindication.
Yulia Tymoshenkothe was clearly in favor of the Ukraine-UE agreement.

Many Ukrainians want their country to have closer relations with the European Union and fear Russian influence. After all, Ukraine has only been an independent country since December 1991, when the Soviet bloc collapsed.

Peaceful protests started in November 2013, immediately after the president decided to stop the Ukraine-EU agreement. Hundreds of thousands of people demonstrated in the streets of Kiev, the Ukraininan capital.

Since November 2013, the protests did not stop. The president ordered harsh police repression of the protests, people built barricades and things got worse and worse.

Amnesty International has witnessed and condemned several Human Rights violations since November, which are listed here: http://www.amnesty.org/en/library/info/EUR50/020/2013/en

2011-01-20: Pro-European protesters aim fireworks at Ukrainian riot police in Kiev.

http://www.trust.org/item/20140120230652-tqxqy/

« Dear subscriber, you are registered as a participant in a mass disturbance. »

That's a text message that thousands of Ukrainian protesters simultaneously received on their cell phones on 2014-01-20, as a new law passed on 2014-01-16 prohibiting public demonstrations went into effect. The law carries a 15-year prison sentence if broken.

2014-01-22, police stormed the protesters in Kiev, leaving 5 dead and more than 300 wounded.

http://www.theaustralian.com.au/new...icades-killing-5/story-e6frg6so-1226808228511

 

[NickNitro]

 

[Teelie]

Not quite a dictatorship yet but it's inches from it.

 

[Duke]

It's just sad because in the end the people are the ones that suffer & politicians get richer.

 

[NickNitro]

What's more sad is the media covers Justin Bieber more than this. This world needs to get its priorities straight.

 

[Victarion]

It's just sad because in the end the people are the ones that suffer & politicians get richer.

Sadder when you realize that the police/soldiers are essentially being sent out as fodder by the politicians.

 

[NickNitro]

I just wanted to post this here to open people's eyes. Far too often we get caught up in our own selfish ways, and forget or simply do not know what's going on around us

 

[Duke]

I just wanted to post this here to open people's eyes. Far too often we get caught up in our own selfish ways, and forget or simply do not know what's going on around them

Or also we take for granted what we have & a lot of people lack. In this case democracy & freedom.

 

[chamber-music]

Russia never really stopped trying to bully and control a number of eastern European countries under its spear of influence especially the Ukraine which some in the Kremlin still think they control.

Its a shame. Russia and Europe could achieve far more together than apart.

I felt bad when Viktor Yanukovych was poisoned but now not so much.

 

[NickNitro]

I felt bad when Viktor Yanukovych was poisoned but now not so much.

He was poisoned!? I'm googling now.


Following an assassination attempt in late 2004 during his election campaign, Yushchenko was confirmed to have ingested hazardous amounts of TCDD,[1] the most potent dioxin and a contaminant in Agent Orange. He suffered disfigurement as a result of the poisoning, but has been slowly recovering.

Wow they really don't like this guy do they

 

[The End]

Thanks for helping us understand better what's happening over there Nick.

 

[chamber-music]

He was poisoned!? I'm googling now.


Following an assassination attempt in late 2004 during his election campaign, Yushchenko was confirmed to have ingested hazardous amounts of TCDD,[1] the most potent dioxin and a contaminant in Agent Orange. He suffered disfigurement as a result of the poisoning, but has been slowly recovering.

Wow they really don't like this guy do they

At the time most people thought it was either his political rival Yulia Tymoshenko's peeps who did it of the Russians.

 

[NickNitro]

Makes sense since he got elected over Yulia then sentenced her and everyone she was associated with to prison immediately for working with foreign relations he didn't agree with. That's some low ****.

 

[enterthemadness]

http://news.yahoo.com/ukraine-protests-resemble-medieval-battle-140629552.html


Oh, it's bad. So bad.



I wonder if sooner or later things liek this will happen here? Yeah, we had that wall street thing years back....but that was mostly peaceful I thought...

 

[Teelie]

Not likely. Hyperbole of the extremists aside, we're nowhere near that dysfunctional.

 

[enterthemadness]

Not likely. Hyperbole of the extremists aside, we're nowhere near that dysfunctional.

Gov't seems to be with budget talks lol.

 

[The End]

I wonder if sooner or later things liek this will happen here? Yeah, we had that wall street thing years back....but that was mostly peaceful I thought...

Unlikely. Americans are so divided; and I'd venture to say, divided by design, the political field is like watching sports. A large portion of the USA thinks corporations are getting too much and are getting away with corruption, another large portion thinks government should stay out of the way of businesses and thinks that lots of people are lazy welfare recipients that only want government hand outs, another large portion thinks abortion and homosexual marriage are the important issues. The youth are too distracted by Justin Bieber stories.

Americans are too divided for a revolution.

And what would it take for them to revolt?

The government spies on people, kills US citizens in foreign countries without any sort of due process, drone strikes sovereign nations, the police can seemingly get away with murdering people, people's rights are violated in stop and searches, more people per 100, 000 are locked up in prison than any where else in the world, bankers that have committed high crimes and screwed people out of billions not only got away with it but get fat bonuses to this day - etc, etc.

They tried a peaceful revolution with Occupy Wallstreet and the media narrative portrayed them all as clueless hippies.

I mean we're talking about a media that would interrupt a congresswoman discussing the government's policies on NSA - THE most important story of today - interrupting her to cover Justin Beiber.

[YT]GH68bSJXGE8[/YT]

There's no way Americans are anywhere near focused enough to revolt. The police could shoot an unarmed kid tomorrow, people could catch it happening on their iphones from 3 different angles, and it wouldn't be enough to get people out on the streets raging against a pseudo-fascist police force.

 

[jonathancrane]

Why don't we focus on the issue in the Ukraine instead of using it to further Alex Jones paranoia? The Occupy people were not as saintly as portrayed: the incidence of rape and violence in their camps is horrifying. Plus, a lot of them represented external interests: quite a few of the protestor groups at my State's capital were sponsored by the local Communist party.

Returning to the subject at hand, the images are horrifying.

 

[The End]

I love how I just stated facts, everything I said that's happening in the USA is happening, but its being written off as Alex Jones paranoia. Pfft, the government's not spying on us, sure there were them Snowden leaks but... well. And the police don't get away with murdering people... sure, there was that homeless guy that had his face caved in, but he was on drugs, or something. And you say more people are locked up in the USA than anywhere else in the world? Well that's Alex Jones paranoia, too.

I stated facts.

 

[BrollySupersj]

Had no idea this was happening, at all.

 

[redhawk23]

I remember the poisoning case. I didn't realize it was the same guy.

 

[Spider-Aziz]

I need to see more of this to make proper judgment, this could be a temporary situation

 

[SV Fan]

[YT]fzLtF_PxbYw[/YT]

 

[Octoberist]

Wow

 

[jmc]

The thing about dictatorships in this day and age is that they don't have the ability to control the people as they may have done before mobile phones came to be widely used. Now that everyone has a phone with HD camera it becomes increasingly difficult for a government to suppress any information. And frankly that's how it should be. I'm of the firm belief the Ukrainians will get what they want, it's clear to me they're not going away that's for sure. Eventually the police/armed forces will tire of the violence towards their officers and will back down to the will of the people. And Russia just needs to stop being a tool.